Moving to Smart - what a joke!

Richard Dower

Oh man, so i called Smart yesterday about their BB packages and availability, local exchange enabled etc.

But get this, i'm with BT for BB/calls/line rental...so yer one on the phone says to me, to come over to us you'll have to cancel with BT...then sign up again with Eircom, then cancel Eircom and then you can move over to Smart :eek:

What the hell?....are they having a laugh?...one would assume a straight and painless migration from BT to Smart.

Can you imagine the downtime involved in all that????...never mind that yer one said even when i was resigned with Eircom it would take 21 WORKING days to migrate the line over to Smart.

Never mind all the charges i'd have, no doubt Eircom would charge a fortune to come back to them.

And yer one on the phone was rude also...she was like, whatever..bye!
That kinda attitude when i stated the migration process would be too long, too much hassle and too expensive.

No wonder Smart are on their last legs.

JNive

one would assume a straight and painless migration from BT to Smart.

Welcome to Ireland, and why do you think people here feel so strongly against the current crap LLU regulation and how that prevents competition.

No wonder Smart are on their last legs.

Correct, and its nothing to do with Smart, and all to do with Eircom & Comreg & the Government. The length of time to change providers is entirely dependant on Eircom and them alone.

dub45

But get this, i'm with BT for BB/calls/line rental...so yer one on the phone says to me, to come over to us you'll have to cancel with BT...then sign up again with Eircom, then cancel Eircom and then you can move over to Smart

This has been the procedure since Smart started and has been discussed many times on boards so I am amazed that you are only learning of it now.

Never mind all the charges i'd have, no doubt Eircom would charge a fortune to come back to them.

Eircom dont charge anything to go back to them or than line rental on a prorata basis until you transfer to Smart.

Oracle

You received very disappointing customer service, worst still you probably paid for the privilege. Their main tech support and customer service are now only available on an 1890 number, or by email and online forum (where you may or may not get an answer.) It was previously available on a freephone number.

The 21 day transfer period Smart are quoting is probably the maximum, you could be transfered quicker, I was connected in about 10 days. Just make sure all your details are correct, account number, etc.. Did they say anything about having to change your phone number, or does that apply now?

Changing providers is hassle but, in the case of Smart its well worth the effort. I agree though I'm not sure where their future lies. It seems inevitable they will be taken over by another major phone/broadband operator. There's not much left to salvage, even the Smart name is surely a liability. In the word's of the supremely victorious Willie O'Dea the reaction the name provokes in most people makes it "....as popular as TB."

AntiVirus

I tried to sign up with Smart back in December 2006 and was told I would have to leave UTV talk and go back to eircom.

I did this and it didn't cost me anything.

I signed up to Smart online on the 12th December and didn't get any email or call to let me know if anything was happening.

Then at the start of Jan my phone number was change to a Smart phone number again with out any email, letter or call. I had to ring eircom to find out what was going on.

Then when I rang Smart they couldn't find out any information or account for me. When they did find the details they told me a modem would be sent to me in the next few days.

After ring them numerous times I was promised a modem would be sent to me and it never arrived.

To cut along story short I canceled my account at the start of April with them and tried to go back to eircom who told me it would cost 130 euros to reconnect me! :eek:

I ended up signing up to blueface and use then for my landline calls with NTL BB and have to say I'm delighted that I didn't go with Smart in the end.

They actually sent me a bill for €400 for terminating my contract early even though they never sent me my password or modem and can see not one byte was ever used.

That letter went straight into my special filing cabinet for Smart, the bin.

spurious

Welcome to the world of Irish LLU as controlled by Eircom.

I would still go through it all again (and I've had to do it twice now) to get to Smart.

rossallan

When i moved into my new flat i was told that the line was with Smart, great i thought, i can give them a call and change the account details into my name.

Not quite.

Apparently i have to cancel the Smart account, get the line transferred back to Eircom, cancel the line with them and get it moved to Smart again.

Genious.

Cabaal

It really sucks to have to move back to Eircom but at the end of the day its not Smarts fault, its eircoms and comreg for not introducing a decent porting system like for example what they have in the UK.

rossallan

To be fair to Smart, the people i talked to on the phone were very apologetic about it all.

I'd imagine they lose a fair bit of business because of it as well. the more time and effort that's required to move companies the less likely people are to bother.

Liam Byrne

Oracle wrote:

even the Smart name is surely a liability. In the word's of the supremely victorious Willie O'Dea the reaction the name provokes in most people makes it "....as popular as TB."

Except for those who've actually gotten a chance at using the service while saving money.

Yup, the common factor in all of this hassle is eircom. And as I've said a million times, having a business model that relies on making hassle for people should generally piss them off; eircom would be better served making their service better, quicker and cheaper - then people would stay with them because they wanted to, and they wouldn't have to worry about competition.

As it is, though, eircom don't have to do this, because ComReg is such a limp wrist, and apparently eircom ain't in the least bit interested in doing anything better until such time as the Goverment admits the problem and brings in substantial legislation to penalise them; which, judging by any of the "but things are fine" tripe I've heard the ComReg, Goverment, eircom and other official spokespeople trot out over the past few years, ain't gonna happen.

Dankoozy

oh gawd.. Smart telecom

"Can I speak to the person who pays the telephone bill?" is a good enough reason not to sign up with them, or any of the other scum out there

spurious

Dankoozy wrote:

oh gawd.. Smart telecom

"Can I speak to the person who pays the telephone bill?" is a good enough reason not to sign up with them, or any of the other scum out there

Ever wonder where they get your number from????

byte

Am I one of the few who think Smart's service is fantastic?

TJJP

byte wrote:

Am I one of the few who think Smart's service is fantastic?

I don't think I'd say fantastic, but all in all I went from an Eircon bill of about €74 euro a month to Smart at €38 over a year ago and I ain't had any problems.

spurious

No complaints here - upgraded from the 4MB to 6MB for a fiver - total cost including VAT €41.31 per month - no download cap, rock solid service.

Eircom wouldn't come within a roar of those speeds and would charge 48 euro PLUS line rental for it.

Madness to me that anyone on a Smart enabled exchange stays with Eircom.

robo

Am also a happy Smart user.
I signed up to Smart when they started rolling out broadband in 2005 and before my 12 month contract was up, I had to move to a new apt. This apt had no phine line, so I told Smart that I would e back to them when I get a phone line. They said fine and didn't charge me extra for stopping during the 12 months.
Took about 9 months for Eircon to connect a phone line into the complex (Dublin 8) and when I was eventually hooked up to Eircom (had to pay about €150 as first time connection and got phone line in), I got onto Smart and transferred back to them...no hassles! But fair play to Smart for not charging me for beaking the contract in the first place.

I do agree that there is no reason for a customer rep not to be helpful & friendly!!!

sioda

Smart is the best thing that has ever happened the Irish broadband market have phone and BB with them and would never consider returning to eircon.

watty

They need to either charge more money or someone force eircom to halve the eircom LLU line rental or they won't stay in the market. Eircom makes good profit from every Smart customer on copper LLU. I doubt Smart makes much.

dlofnep

She's probably pissed off repeating the same stuff, that she personally has no power about. I work for an ISP and if someone's line is cut off for reasons beyond our power and we tell them that we can't have it back on for X amount of time, they get ratty with us. It's completely out of our hands.. And as much patience as we have, we're all only human at the end of the day - so pardon her if she wasn't the most enthusiastic person of all time. You probably got ratty with her in the first place.. No matter how ****ty of a day it is - if someone is nice to me on the phone, I would always be nice back to them.. You'd feel guilty if you got in a huff with them if they were a nice person.